Saturday, January 12, 2008

Diamond Valley Lake

We saw our friends Ron and Lisa Draper today. We were able to see their new place, which is very nice with a private and roomy lot. After that, they took us on an enjoyable tour of the valley and showed us the most interesting man-made reservoir. It was dammed on two sides. It provides water to San Diego County and is four miles long by two miles wide and about 100 feet deep. It is also stocked with good eating fish. Ron tells us the fishing is excellent.

When the valley was being excavated to construct the reservoir, an archeological treasure chest was uncovered with giant sloths, sabertooth tigers, mastedons, and wooly mammoths. There is now a museum with some of the fossils and bones that were found and a movie describing their finds and the process of building the reservoir. Very interesting. One of the paleontologists stated that they were finding bones at such a fast pace that it was difficult to keep up with the work. “Overwhelming” was the word he used. The reservoir is quite beautiful with the mountains surrounding it. It was a nice way to spend the day.

Tomorrow Mike’s sister Meredith will drive over from Fullerton to spend the day and have dinner with us. We will hook up with Ron and Lisa again on Monday, possibly to see the new Tom Hanks movie, Charlie Wilson’s War. We haven’t been to the theater in years, but this is a movie we really want to see.

I’m still working on the slide show, but don’t let all this talk fool you into thinking it’s anything special. It’s just a quick way to post the many pictures I have of Death Valley. I can't post such a large file while using Mike's phone for my internet connection; but tomorrow, we'll spring for the $5 for 24 hours (!) while Mike pays some bills and we take care of other business. For now, I’m posting some pictures we took today. Hope you enjoy them.

3 comments:

I wondered who would say something about the rust/suntan. You have to be an Oregonian to appreciate that! Cats are doing well. George is a little restless and really wants to be brave enough to be out. So far, he gets six feet from the trailer and then runs in a panic for the door. When we were in the Redwoods, we were isolated enough for him to be out, but that's been the only time. Krissy is out at least once a day, Gracie only goes out as far as the first step.

Hi guys. I finally got all caught up in my reading and survived the cross-country skiing today. It was a beautiful, sunny day on the mountain. Nothing serious happened, other than a jammed thumb and a broken ski pole. I'm sure it would have made a pretty hilarious video if someone had a camera going. Felix says "Meow!" I'm in suspense for the slide show myself...